Fear Is a Real Thing
This Sunday was my first Sunday back.
Many of you can probably relate to that statement.
Whether it’s in the physical sense or the internal sense, we all can get caught up for a while.
Being gone for a month from the gathering of believers in a church setting wasn’t actually my plan.
It just kind of happened.
From not feeling so well on a Sunday morning in Kenya to spending a little more time away from home… I didn’t step foot in a Sunday service or a small group for one month.
Getting ready for church this past Sunday was, difficult.
It’s like I forgot how to dress for a service, I was disappointed in the way I looked, I was running late, and it was raining really hard.
To me, those all felt like reasons why I should just add onto my weeks of distance.
But I knew that if I didn’t go in, that I would regret it.
The feeling of want to versus don’t want to was very slim.
I attest it only to the Holy Spirit for getting me out of my car that morning.
When I got to church, I went straight into worship like normal. I sat in God’s presence and it was really nice.
But still I wondered, who wants me here?
It’s not easy to return to something you’ve been away from and I’ve come to realize this…
In my heart, I had let myself slide away from the truth of it all.
You see, life in love with Jesus and the pieces of the story He has called us to enjoy are meant to be known and felt daily.
When we take ourselves away from parts of His heart, like church community for example, we lose sight of the truth.
Who God says we are in community is meant to be found in community.
What I’m saying is, if we purposefully or most of the time, unknowingly, walk in a gradual distance from it, the truth of what God has for us will be muffled, falsely relayed, and hushed.
When we don’t seek out fresh revelation of this truth, we are binding ourselves by allowing our hearts to receive information that is not of God.
The truth is meant to be sought out. It doesn’t barge in. It doesn’t intrude.
Seeking the truth is what keeps the enemy at bay from our shores of God’s reality.
His Word over us is something we are called to live in.
Our lives don’t just become idle when we are slowly separating ourselves from His truth…
Our lives are then in danger.
The enemy is always seeking to devour us.
If we submit to God and resist the devil, he will flee our lives. James 4:7
But when we are not continually submitting, has the devil just given up the fight?
No. And you might be at a point in your life where the fight seems overbearing and unrelenting.
The enemy is taking us down everyday that we are not seeking and submitting to God.
Our precious, valuable, and remarkable lives submitted to God, are great, but when we let go of the submission, the want to, we can’t bear it.
So where has your heart become distant? Where have your thoughts fled to without noticing?
I guarantee you that it is not God that has brought you to a place of fear, but it was a slow progression of waywardness that opened doors to the sly hands of the enemy.
He is the father of lies. John 8:44
He will never stop trying to get a lie into our heads and then to our hearts.